Margalit Fox: belief

Transcript context

…Was there something surprising you learned about him doing his obit? I think just what a melancholic he was. Now, that’s far from unusual for creative people, but it was — his personal story was rather painful. He was someone who grew up poor, Jewish, knowing he was gay in this very repressive era. He was a deeply, deeply melancholy man. Of course, it comes through in the work, as well. Studying all these different lives, from so many walks of life, different countries, to some extent different eras, what in life do you feel is underrated or overrated, say, by your readers? Various clichés like, “Oh, I spend too much time in the office, not enough with family” — so many people say that. I don’t actually believe they necessarily really mean it. But what do you feel on that after studying all this history? What in life is underrated?…

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